73 Rumi Quotes That Will Change Your Perspective of Thinking

Maulana Jalal al-din Rumi, popularly known as Mevlana Rumi was a Persian mystical poet of the 13 Century. The divine theologian and Sufi poet were born in A.D. 1207 at Balkh, which now lies within the frontiers of Afghanistan. He took his last breath in 1273 at Konya, in Asiatic Turkey.

His influences ran across the countries of South Asia, including Turkey, Iran, Greece, and Pashtun regions. Rumi’s Stories, poems, lectures are considered the most eminent and popular ones, especially gaining attention in the West, quite recently. Hats off to the translation work by Cambridge professors Reynolds Alleyne Nicholson and Arthur J Arberry who devoted much of their scholarly works to translate Rumi’s poems and Ghazals and introduced them to the west, simultaneously to the World.

From 1240 to 1244, after completing his long formal education in Aleppo and Damascus, Rumi in his own turn taught and preached in Konya. From then on, Rumi began his journey of transformation from a sober theologian and preacher into ecstatic dancer and enraptured poet. His work Meth-nawi or Masnavi, a massive collection of narrative poems on mystical life is considered to be one of a kind.

Divan-i-shams, another of the famed works of Rumi was translated by the Cambridge professors and are still under printing, 110 years later after Nicholson’s death. Divan-i-shams has a huge collection of Rumi’s ghazals and poems, of which Nicholson translated few selected ones while Arberry translated around 400 of them, while rest of works being still in continuation.

Rumi has written some 3229 poems/ghazals, many of them in Urdu and Persian, while some in Turkish also.Eight hundred years have now passed since the birth of Rumi in 1207, yet his poems remain to be vibrant and invigorating to contemporary readers. His quote, “I do not distinguish between the relative and the stranger” shows his good relations with people of diverse social, cultural, and religious backgrounds.

Rumi is believed to have divinely connected to a wandering dervish named Shams al-Dın, a native of Tabriz, of artisan origin, who suddenly arrived in the Saljuq capital and attracted attention by his wildness. Shams al-Din after facing resentment from other dervishes, fled to Damascus. Sultan Valad (Rumı’s son and biographer) acknowledged his father’s communion with the ‘hidden Saint’ and was sent to look for him.

To symbolize the search for the lost beloved, Rumi invented the famous whirling and circling Sufi dance of his Mevlevi dervishes, performed on the lamenting reed pipe and the pacing drum. The whirling movement was considered the sacred dance of the Mevlevi dervishes, which is believed to connect with the God and marked as an integral part of Sufism.

As an influential poet as he was, Rumi himself took inspiration from many literal mystical poets, two noteworthy of them were Sanai, who died circa a.d.1150, and Farıd al-Dın Attar, whom Rumi met in his youth.Rumi stays to be the most popular poet, Persia has produced, with his inspiring collection of beautiful quotes, poems, and Ghazals that speak about Nature, worship, human traits, Almighty, justice, equality, and peace.

Here, is the list of the Rumi Quotes, that will guide you to the path of self-realization.

Fall in love in such a way that it frees you from any connecting.

When you hear dirty storywash your ears. When you see ugly stuff wash your eyes. When you get bad thoughts wash your mind. and Keep your feet muddy.

Look inside and find where a person loves from. That’s the reality, not what they say.

A thousand half-loves must be forsaken to take one whole heart home.

Love is the religion, and the universe is the book.

God lives between a human being and the object of his desireRemember, the way you make love is the way God will be with you.Stay bewildered in God, and only that.

The worst loneliness is to stay among those who do not understand you.

Internal dirt cannot be washed off with water, but only with tears.

In the mirror, as you know, the opposite is true. But without him, we would never see ourselves!

Make friends with the clever, for a friend is a foolSometimes more dangerous than a clever enemy.

Nurture your tongue, raise your heart. Because words come from the heart, go through the tongue.

When troubles come upon you, one after another, when they bring you to an unbearable state, just don’t give up! Because this is the point where the course of events will change.

What you seek is seeking you.

What you are looking for is also looking for you.

Who has a great love, a great test.

When the fools are taught by the wise men,They throw the crops into the salt licks, And no matter how darn – wider than yesterday, Tomorrow will be a nonsense hole!

Everything breaks where it is thin, and only a person breaks down from rudeness.

The one who found happiness in you is yours. All the rest are guests.

Before you start reading books, let’s try to read ourselves.

A clever person wants to control himself – a child wants sweets.

This is a very delicate concept: everything that you love is you.

Stitch the eyes, let the heart be the eye.

Only when a person is deprived of external being, like winter, there is hope that a new spring will arise in him.

Praises are worthy only one of us, Who helps the weak in a difficult hour.

The proof of the existence of the sun is the sun itself. If you demand proof, do not turn away from Him.

This world is mountains, and our actions are cries: the echo from our scream in the mountains always comes back to us.

The goal of this world is man, and the goal of man is an instant; the purpose of the body is the acquisition of the spirit, and the purpose of the spirit is the regulation of the senses. The goal of regulating the senses and organs is to perfect the heart, and the purpose of the heart is the beloved.

It is necessary to leave the circle of Time and enter the circle of Love.

If ten people want to enter the house, but only nine succeed, the tenth should not say: “This is the will of the Lord.” He must find out what his own flaw was.

Wisdom and knowledge exist in order to be able to distinguish the road from the terrain. Be a road everywhere, wisdom would be superfluous.

God created us so that the Truth could be known through us.

The footman cannot keep up with the rider’s lasso, but once he got into it, then he has to run, unwillingly.

We need first a receptive soil, and then the instructions of the righteous; when you are not able to understand what is the use of beautiful speeches?

Eyes, ears, and mouth do not make a figure a man, as the images on the walls have the same features.

Do not look at the world through the eyes of lust; after all, the back of the snake is decorated with patterns, but its poison is deadly.

Sensations and thoughts litter the path of truth, like garbage – clean water. Only the mind, removing this garbage, clears the path of knowledge.

Every enemy is a cure for you. He benefits you: he calms the heart, because you run away from him and give yourself to solitude, and expect the mercy of God.

This world is like a tree, and we are to be likened to fruits.As long as the fruits are immature on the branches, They hang without knowing the troubles.

Wear clothes that people wear and eat what they eat. But internally be not involved in them.

Repeating other people’s words – it does not mean yet to understand their meaning.

Yet the Truth to the one who believes,Knocks like a traveler to locked doors.

Who killed the temptation of pride in himself,He is the king of the earth and the king of heavenly blue.

Whoever seeks a sin of a stranger, thoseGod judges more strictly than those who create sin.

In the slaughter of love only the best are killed, not the weak, the ugly and the unlucky. Do not be afraid of such a demise. Killed not by love? To know, he lived carrion!

In a person of love there can be both bad and good. You do not look at it, you look at the root – and you will see the light coming from you.

Life without presence is not counted.

Work. Keep digging your well. Do not think about how to stop working.

Constancy in small details makes perfect a great job.

If you want what visible reality can give, you’re an employee.If you want the unseen world, you’re not living your truth. Both wishes are foolish, but you’ll be forgiven for forgetting that what you really want is love’s confusing joy.

There are two types on the path, those who come against their will, the blindly religious, and those who obey out of love.

If the beloved is everywhere, the lover is a veil,but when living itself becomes the Friend, lovers disappear.

If the wine drinkerHas a deep gentleness in him, He will show that, When drunk. But if he has hidden anger and arrogance, Those appear, And since most people do, Wine is forbidden to everyone.

If you want to strengthen your faith, you will need to soften inside.

Love is the water of life.

God created suffering so that joy might appear through its opposite.

Not Christian or Jew or Muslim, not Hindu, Buddhist, Sufi or Zen. Not any religion or cultural system. I am not of the East, nor of the West.…

My place is placeless, a trace of the traceless.

What is the secret? “God is One.”

Everyone clearly sees the jug. But in each jug a divine elixir is hidden, the taste of which will be felt only by the one who tasted it.

Lovers in the Lord are like fishes swimming in an ocean of love. They do not dream of empty dreams of spiritual.

Tree branches rise and fall like the ecstatic hands of those who have surrendered to mystical life.

Sometimes a bird flies high in the sky, Only a shadow across the field, rushing along the road.And you, fool, run after her all day, But how to catch that which is just a shadow?You see not the object, but the shadow of the object, And where is the object itself? He is in the sky somewhere.

Let the word good, yet sometimes From the word less benefit than harm.

We are not free to see our flaws, Any flaw is more visible from the outside. When the vicious saw his vice, he could easily correct him.

The word flies suddenly, unexpectedly from the tongue, Like an arrow of an awkward shooter.

Losing is not a reason for sadness. The poorer we are, the easier our care, the weaker the fear that we will lose something. We will lose wealth – it does not matter: And the rich are not always happy.

What to do, from one flower Snake takes its bitter poison, the bee takes its honey.

Love should be something that would delight us. Love can give us joy without counting.

Man lives between the worlds of angels and animals. If, after physical development, it ceases to develop internally, it will soon be in the herd of animals. Continuing to work hard will live in the world of angels.

This world is a mountain, and our actions are cries; the echo from shouts always comes back to us.

Without waking our hearts, you and I can hardly achieve what we all dreamed of.

After the death, do not look for our grave in the earth; look for it in the hearts of enlightened people.